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People with mental illness are drastically overrepresented in U.S. prisons and jails. One study found that more than half of all prisoners have a mental health problem.

Once behind bars, people with mental illness rarely receive adequate care. Even worse, many are targeted for sexual abuse — a devastating crime that can be especially traumatic for someone who has a mental illness.

Delivering rape crisis services in prisons and jails poses many obstacles. When the survivor has a mental illness, the challenges for advocates are even greater.

During this 90-minute webinar, we’ll identify and address some of these challenges, and help you develop the skills and resources to provide timely crisis services to these incarcerated survivors.

This webinar will also:
– Provide advocates with a basic overview of mental illness and sexual abuse in detention
– Increase advocates’ knowledge of incarcerated survivors with mental health issues and the role of mental health providers
– Assist advocates in developing their advocacy skills to support incarcerated survivors with mental illness

The webinar will be interactive and participants will have an opportunity to ask questions at the end.

The webinar is geared toward rape crisis advocates and other community-based service providers, but anyone who works with current or former detainees is encouraged to attend. This series of webinars is being supported by the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women.

JDI is a health and human rights organization that seeks to eliminate sexual violence in all forms of detention.